Banana Republics: United Fruit Company Board of Directors, 1950

Banana Republics

United Fruit Company Board of Directors, 1950

Corporate corruption, economic boom, political bribery, and bananas. Lots of bananas. During the mid-twentieth century, the United Fruit Company, at the crux of the banana republic economy, played a formidable and quite questionable role in the development of the sociopolitical makeup of several Latin American countries. The quest for money and power is one where only the strong survive.

The year is 1950. The banana republics are booming, much at the expense of organic political economy and worker’s rights. Further complicated by worldwide tensions amidst the cease of World War II and the roots of the Cold War, it’s an interesting--and particularly unstable--time to be in business. The UFCO Board of Directors seem to have it all--a monopoly, an obsequious government, and hundreds of thousands of booming, ready to be cultivated land. What could go wrong?

Isaac Santelli

Chair

Isaac Santelli is, as he will tell you as soon as he meets you, from New York City. A second year in the college, his greatest passions in life are memes, Helmuth Von Moltke’s war plans, saying “deadass”, and pretending he’s good enough at math to major in Mathematics with a specialization in Economics. He is truly a model UN veteran, having competed throughout high school and now college. Outside of Model UN, most of his time is spent eating bread like corn on the cob, tagging people in more memes, making fun of Jonas for being preprofessional, and picking out his outfit in the morning. He is unbelievably excited to take you on this wonderful journey through one of th the most contentious eras in Latin American history, and hopes that the committee is ready for a change to change the course of American geopolitics forever.

Jonas Ciplickas

Crisis Director

Jonas is a 2nd year in the college, but he is originally from the Bay Area. Jonas is deeply involved in the math life at UChicago, and the only thing he loves more than his fraternity (Zeta Psi), are mathematical proofs using Delta Epsilon (Epsilon > 0 of course). In addition to being involved in Greek Life and math life, Jonas is also heavily involved with UChicago’s competitive MUN team and this past summer worked at at an airline that shall not be named. Post-grad Jonas will hopefully go into finance where he plans to bring his pure soul and have it crushed by working in Investment Banking. Jonas is thrilled to work with his other executives; Jonas and Mimi have “amazing dynamism”, and Jonas and Isaac will be living together this year. Jonas is incredibly excited to be an executive at ChoMUN and he can’t wait to meet all of you.

mimi Hess

Crisis Director

Originally from New Jersey, Mimi is currently a fourth year (cries) Economics and Philosophy double major in The College. She hasn’t quite found the link between the two yet either. Previously, she has served as Crisis Director for Pinkerton Detective Agency, Chair for the Walt Disney Company, and Assistant Chair on Grant’s Cabinet. Outside of ChoMUN, she is involved in Smart Woman Securities and Alpha Phi Omega. She would love to tell you that she spends her free time doing x, y, and z, but she recognizes the scarcity of free time and would much rather be honest and say that she wholeheartedly enjoys spending her free time doing absolutely nothing. She really loves Lost, though.